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NATIONAL 
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AN OPEN LETTER 
TO HIS EXCELLENCY 
THE PRESIDENT OF 



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THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



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Copyright 1916 

BY 

Henry A. Bomberger 



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NATIONAL 
PREPAREDNESS. 



Jin Open Letter to His Excellency 
^he President of the United States. 



Sir.- 

As a man, and as an American citizen, you no 
doubt accept the principle and enter heartily into 
the spirit of " national preparedness for war." The 
statement is made without qualification because 
from time immemorial man as man has invariably 
accepted this principle, and the citizenry of the 
world without exception has always entered thus 
into this same spirit. 

For this very reason, therefore, your humble 
correspondent, and dutiful servant, does not oppose 
the principle of "national preparedness for war" 
merely as man to man, nor does he at this time 
question the spirit of " national preparedness for 
war" merely as fellow-citizens of a great nation 
counsel with each other. 

But I respectfully appeal to you, Sir, as a Chris- 
tian — more than a mere man — yea, more than an 
American citizen — though a better man and a truer, 
greater citizen for all that. 

Not since the sun first rose on lost Paradise, after 
man had been cast out into a world thenceforth rent 
with strife and torn with war, has any human being 
faced the opportunity that today cries aloud for 
admission at the gates of your house. 



The people of this peaceful and prosperous land 
have appointed you their leader, their executive, 
their exemplar, the commander-in-chief of their 
hopes and fears, of all they hold sacred and dear. 
As a nation, in the providence of God we stand in 
every respect supreme among the great powers of 
earth — in the extent of our domain and the in- 
estimable value of our national resources, in the 
number and character of our united people (most 
of whom, or whose forebears, came to these gracious 
shores to escape socalled " preparedness for war," 
its concomitant evils and logical consequences), in 
commerce and education, in political constitution 
and pure religion, in peaceful purposes and un- 
paralleled liberties, fortified on our eastern and 
western borders by great and practically impreg- 
nable seas, buttressed on the north by arctic cold 
and on the south by tropic heat. 

Meanwhile, the outside nations, all previously 
"prepared" for war, though in varying degree (as 
the case must ever be), are arrayed against each 
other in the most bitter, sanguinary and inexcusable 
conflict that history records. The full-armed co- 
horts of hell have been let loose — heresy and hate, 
the unchecked lust of blood, of territorial expansion, 
commercial supremacy and temporal power — in self- 
evident contravention of the best interests of human- 
ity, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, man's 
inalienable rights — unbridled envy and enmity dis- 
covering themselves in unspeakably malignant, 
noisome passion, while the destructive scourge of 
starvation and pestilence threatens to finish in 
horror the frenzied debauch. 

In such a case as this, to which cause will so- 
called victory come? To the cause of justice and 
righteousness? Or to the cause that can continue 
longest to muster and maintain ' ' the heaviest batta- 
lions"? — Do tell, is this the way, by display of 

[2] 



sheer brute force, in which to secure that much- 
vaunted "righteous" peace, or to avoid the strange 
sophistry of that socalled " unrighteous " peace? — 
There is no such thing as unrighteous "peace" — such 
peace is but smoldering strife. — Shall we do evil 
that good may come of it? God forbid. — Or, if 
good may come of evil, is this the wisest and best 
way in which to attain the good? Shall we have 
peace because we fear each other, or because we 
' ' love one another, and so fulfill the law of Christ ' ' ? 

Socalled "national preparedness for war," in any 
view of it — however good the mere phrase may sound 
in some superficial or itching ears — is only an utter 
deceit and a merciless farce ; for no nation can be said 
to be effectually "prepared," in the sense intended, 
until it is more fully prepared than every other 
prepared nation; so that every chapter of the vast 
volume of this "preparedness" simply leads to 
another larger chapter in endless succession. — More- 
over, the command "Ready!" has ever been easily 
and quickly followed by the command to "Fire!" 
— Preparedness and Prussianism are synonymous 
terms. — Therefore "preparedness" is all a rude 
joke, Sir — especially jolly, I should say, to the 
steel and munition interests of the country — while 
the oppressed and misguided people pay the stag- 
gering price ! 

Furthermore, I am well aware that the logic of 
disarmament leads directly to the abandonment of 
the socalled police powers generally. — Very well, 
let it be so — and may heaven hasten the day! The 
safest and happiest people in this land are not those 
whose habit it has been to sleep with police pistols 
under their pillows, burglar alarms on their door- 
posts and a special officer constantly on the corner. 
And the most secure and peaceful sections of this 
country even now are to be found where saloons and 
jails have practically passed into history and a 

[3] 



policeman would now be simply an interesting 
curiosity. 

Bad as we are we are not as far removed after all 
from the conditions that constitute an ideal state as 
some prophets of evil, whose spirit of self-aggrandize- 
ment is constantly "seeing things," would have us 
think. — All of which leads to a series of considera- 
tions worth while, a simple example of which may be 
found in the fact that if the entire police force of our 
own city of Philadelphia were immediately abolished 
two- thirds of the political corruption, that has made 
this city a by-word of reproach throughout this 
nation, would be gone with the police — so much at 
least." — Therefore those who think that our police 
powers, as at present constituted, are an unmixed 
blessing, are asleep, biased, or the sad victims of 
distorted vision — or their wits are wool-gathering. 

But however all this may be, I frankly and respect- 
fully submit that we must either abandon our 
professions of Christianity or stop this militaristic 
clap-trap. 

From a child, Sir, you have been brought up in 
the knowledge and testimony of the living God, in 
the love and doctrine of Jesus Christ. Speak, I pray 
you — speak the word of welcome to waiting oppor- 
tunity — grasp her outstretched, pleading hand — and 
let that word be high as heaven, and that grasp as 
strong as the mighty bulwarks of the eternal God. 
Speak, Sir — and let the word ring true and beautiful 
above the noxious smoke of battle, the belching roar 
of howitzer, the crash of bursting shrapnel, the shrieks 
of dying men, the anguish-cry of outraged women 
and children, the moans of the widow and fatherless. 

O, my God! — Shall this Christian nation and its 
Christian president discount brutal bloodshed, com- 
mercialize the frightful misfortunes of mankind and 
make hilarious capital out of the savage onslaught of 

[4] 



the contending factions ? Shall our boasted American 
eagle be transformed now into naught but a hungry, 
voracious buzzard, gorging and fattening itself on 
the carrion dead of European battlefields? Shall 
the divine light of our liberty now become only the 
flickering lantern of some ghoul seeking gangrened 
booty and enrichment among the rotting sepulchers 
of the nations we are wont to call our friends ? 

Put up thy sword, Sir, into his place — for war is 
hell — and the nation that takes the sword, shall 
perish with the sword. It is as true in history as 
in Sacred Writ. 

Dare you now venture even the suggestion that 
this is simply the idle prattle of some hair-brained 
theorist, or the blathering of some impractical, 
visionary doctrinaire? In His day and generation 
it was with impunity said to be such. But may 
that characterization endure after the test of twenty 
centuries ? 

What think you? — Men come and go, philoso- 
phies rise and fall, science staggers and stumbles, 
nations flourish and vanish — but the cross still 
stands! — the cross, with its ignominy and shame — 
the cross, with its unpreparedness and pain — the 
cross, with its defencelessness and dishonor — the 
cross, with its mockery and death — the cross, on 
which He, or the nation, lifted up, draws all men 
with the irresistible power of Almighty God — the 
cross, with its ineffable love of mankind — the cross, 
with its impelling, propitiatory sacrifice — the cross, 
as great for the community as for the individual — 
the cross — still — stands ! 

By that sign conquer, Sir — and never in this wild 
world by the sign of pounds sterling, French 75^ or 
German howitzers. 

I say, Sir, that rather than this, let this blessed 
nation be crucified, dead and buried — it would soon 

[5] 



rise again to win the world more mightily and cer- 
tainly to its sublime standard of righteousness and 
peace, equality and fraternity — and not all the 
clanking legions of hell itself could stop that resur- 
rection. — If that be treason, make the most of it. 

Let it be said that these are but the vain ravings 
of a neurotic — it has often been said, even of the 
world's greatest, bravest and best. Let the worldly- 
wise man wag his head — let a Godless, conceited, 
arrogant philosophy swagger, sneer and scoff — and 
let this preaching of crucifixion continue to be a 
stumblingblock to one and foolishness to another — 
it is nevertheless the power of God, and has proved 
itself to be the wisdom of God. 

Where today is the haughty Roman soldier, full- 
armed and ready, who pierced the unshielded side 
of Him they crucified? Where today is the vaunted, 
well-prepared empire of the Caesars who abetted that 
soldier's damnable deed? The world has never 
since known such extended domain, or wealth, or 
power. Where is it all today? 

But that selfsame cross still stands — commanding 
untold trusty legions in every land and clime, .the 
unarmored forces of the Prince of Peace, yet the 
mightiest forces ever marshalled any where. For, 
behold! the foolishness of God is wiser than men, 
and the weakness of God is mightier than men; for 
God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, 
to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the 
weak things of the world to confound the things 
that are mighty. 

I therefore humbly pray you, Sir — be the wise 
champion of that foolishness, the strong adherent of 
that weakness. 

The socalled "national honor" has been little more 
in the experience of men than a scandalous, crush- 

[61 



ing Juggernaut; and the socalled "patriotism" of 
men has been little more than a hungry, heartless 
Moloch. Yet the most distinguished Jew that 
illustrious people has ever produced, who has done 
most for real national honor, and has really glori- 
fied pure patriotism, gave Himself up, all unarmed, 
to scornful crucifixion. 

But suppose Japan should attack us on our 
western seaboard? — Pardon my simplicity, my ap- 
parent lack of political sagacity and statesmanship — 
but, on that ground, Japan would not attack us on our 
western seaboard, nor elsewhere; or, if she did, she 
would perish by her own sword ; or, more likely, be- 
fore her superdreadnaughts had fairly entered the 
Golden Gate, Japan would be on her knees, a grate- 
ful suppliant instead of an angry adversary. — I 
believe that. Is that faith f oolishnesss ? 

But suppose Germany should attack us on our 
eastern seaboard? — But, under such conditions, Ger- 
many would not attack us on our eastern seaboard, 
nor elsewhere; or, if she did, she would perish by 
her own hand, as Rome did; or, more likely, before 
her tremendous war machine had been landed within 
our coasts, Germany would bow in submission before 
the super- strength of the innocent, defenceless, up- 
lifted one — I believe that. Is that faith fanaticism? 

Yet it is not for me, Sir, to discuss with Your 
Excellency such matters of state as these. Much 
less would your dutiful correspondent boast any 
peculiar virtue of his own. Alas! he has no virtue 
to boast of. As a man, in hot haste, I, too, would 
no doubt draw the prepared and all too ready 
sword, as. one did of old at the garden gate when 
they came with swords and staves to take Him, all 
"unprepared," to judgment and ignominious sacri- 
fice. — It is not I, myself, speaking, therefore — either 
as a man or as a citizen — but my religion. I can 
myself go into the trenches, and it may be take my 

[7] 



religion with me ; but never in this world can I take 
these savage trenches into my religion. My religion 
is paramount — both my manhood and my citizen- 
ship must come up to its standard, else all three are 
but vanity. 

I would therefore simply state the undisputed 
principle and voice the unquestioned spirit of our 
common Christianity. 

With one of your distinguished predecessors in the 
presidency of this nation, both professors of that 
Christianity, I am advised that you recently turned 
back from the historic record of Christianity, as 
found in the New Testament scriptures, to the Old 
Testament record of a decadent Judaism in search 
of some authoritative justification for the propaganda 
of "national preparedness for war" — just as the 
Mormons were wont to turn back to the patriarchs 
for some scriptural warrant for polygamy — the 
slightest justification or warrant for either of which 
I respectfully challenge you or any living man to 
produce from the scriptures of the New Testament, 
the only accredited historic record of Jesus Christ. 

Your same honored predecessor is reported to 
have said that "this country was made inhabita- 
ble by war." — Suppose it was; might there not 
have been a far better, a Christian way, of making 
it inhabitable? — But it was not. — Permit me to 
say that I cannot understand how any one pos- 
sessed of so great a degree of honesty, and intelligent 
discernment of all the facts, could make a state- 
ment so contrary to the facts. The simple historic 
truth is that this country came near to being made 
uninhabitable by war. — Yet I do not catch the drift 
of that strange statement. If the reference is to our 
early Indian wars, its author cites one of the blackest 
and most damning pages in the history of the Ameri- 
can people. If the reference is to the European wars 
that drove our early colonists to seek the asylum of 

[8] 



these foreign shores, an indictment is presented of 
the supreme folly and wickedness of war that it 
would be difficult to equal. If the reference is to 
our Revolutionary war, the statement certainly 
calls for some very sweeping qualifications. 

In any event, the mailed fist belongs — to Christian- 
ity, never! — but to the barbarism of alien idolatries. 

Physical bigness is not fundamental — except in 
brutes; the only fundamental thing, for men and 
nations, is righteousness, moral bigness — it cannot 
be moved, its seeming defeat is only a passing illu- 
sion. Submission constructs its own sepulcher, it 
may be, in the divinely mysterious metamorphoses 
of human life; but a little later it comes forth again, 
not crawling, but with golden wings. The true wis- 
dom and power of the world manifest themselves, 
not in deadly weapons and munitions of war, but in 
lowly mangers and on life's Calvaries. — Here only 
are true courage and heroism. — A floating fort of 
massive steel has by no means the structural strength, 
neither the defensive nor offensive effectiveness, and 
carries neither the honor nor the patriotism, of a 
simple beatitude woven into the fabric of individual 
and civic life. — I would rather be right and be 
wrecked than be a conqueror in the wrong. And 
mere human philosophy has again revealed itself as 
nothing more nor less than an indistinct, tortuous 
calf -path, starting in some sequestered haystack and 
leading farther and farther into the dense, briar- 
infested, hopelessly tangled undergrowth of an ever 
darker, savage jungle. 

A bigger muscle, a stronger back, or a stouter 
club does not denote the pathway to permanent 
peace — never did — and never will! The fighting 
edge of carnal kingdoms has no part at all in the 
peaceful conquests of the gracious scepter of Jesus 
Christ. — "My Kingdom," said He, "is not of this 
world, else would my servants fight." 

[9] 



I will agree that our professed Christianity is in- 
deed, at every point and in every respect, paradoxi- 
cal — and humanly speaking a laughing-stock. Its 
distinguishing tenets, its fundamental ideas, its essen- 
tial doctrines, its ways and means, are diametrically 
opposed, it is quite true, to every human hypo- 
thesis. — Let it be so. 

Nevertheless, "resist not evil" — and evil will 
explode itself only to destroy itself, and without ulti- 
mate damage to any save itself. — Is this, too, fool- 
ishness? If it is, the laugh is, not on me, but on Him. 

But try it, Sir. Man, alas, has had at least 
sixty centuries of the other thing, let us now try 
this, in truth, for only sixty years — nay, sixty 
months! Let us turn the other cheek, Sir — for the 
man or the nation that is wise enough in its folly to 
learn, strong enough in its wisdom to live, that 
lesson, will abide in ever increasing wisdom, honor 
and strength. 

Therefore, while my poor humanity cries aloud for 
more ships, and still more ships — larger armies and 
still more guns — my religion would sink every one of 
those infernal instruments of human wickedness, 
cowardice and folly, in the unsounded depths of the 
sea, put every soldier to the plow, convert every gun 
into a garden hose, and cast all our socalled coast 
defenses into the bottomless pit whence they were 
digged. 

For God still lives, and righteousness still reigns 
supreme above all the devilish din of war and the 
unsheathed teeth of brute beasts. 

With every consideration, etc., I beg to remain 
Respectfully yours, 

HENRY A. BOMBERGER. 

1082 Drexel Building, Philadelphia, Pa. 
January 12 th, 191 6. 
[101 



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